Pete Hegseth, you in danger, girl.
President Donald Trump on Monday laid the groundwork to blame his secretary of defense for the unfolding disaster in Iran, saying that Hegseth convinced him to start the “excursion” that the administration still has yet to give a coherent rationale for.
Seated alongside Hegseth at an event in Memphis, Tennessee, Trump said that the stock market and economy were doing “fantastic” but that he had "unfortunately" called Hegseth and others to discuss whether to bomb Iran and Hegseth was "the first one" to say Trump should attack.
"You said, 'Let's do it’—because you can't let them have a nuclear weapon," Trump said of Hegseth.
Sure sounds like Trump is laying the groundwork to can Hegseth.
Trump offered that insight into how he pulled the trigger on attacking Iran as the conflict is going off the rails. Iran has blocked a critical oil passageway and bombed other fuel infrastructure in neighboring Middle Eastern nations, leading to a spike in fuel prices that are shaking the global economy.
It's why Trump on Monday appeared to lie about negotiations with Iran to end the war. At least for the moment, it seemed to work as investors caused the stock markets to rise and oil prices to fall at the opening of the trading day. However, Iran has since said it wasn't speaking with Trump and has no plans to stop its aggressions, which may cause markets to trend back down.
Trump is clearly terrified about the chaos he unleashed—and new polling shows he has a reason to be.
A CBS/YouGov survey found 57% of Americans think the war is going "very" or "somewhat" poorly. Another 60% disapprove of Trump starting the conflict altogether.
As for Hegseth, he would be well-poised to start polishing his resume and reaching back out to his friends Fox News, where he worked before being confirmed to lead the Pentagon.
Trump has no qualms with firing officials to make them the scapegoats for his cruel and unpopular agenda. Kristi Noem found that out the hard way when she was unceremoniously fired as homeland security secretary earlier in March, after she was made the face of Trump's brutal anti-immigration actions.
In fact, Trump has toyed with axing Hegseth at least once before. Earlier in Trump’s new administration, Hegseth was embroiled in a controversy over use of an unsecured Signal chat—that inadvertently included a journalist—to discuss classified military operations. As the Signal controversy was unfolding, NPR reported that Trump's White House had begun the process of looking for Hegseth's replacement.
Nearly a year later, Trump is now publicly placing the war on Hegseth's feet, claiming Hegseth was a major advocate of the bombing operation.
Of course, the blame might not even be true.
Earlier in March, Trump said that Hegseth, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio convinced him that an Iran attack was “imminent” and that he needed to start this war.
"Based on what Steve and Jared and Pete and others were telling me—Marco, so involved—that I thought that they were going to attack us,” Trump said on March 9.
But Trump can’t fire his family. Rubio is more popular than Hegseth. And Witkoff is a behind-the-scenes figure whose firing wouldn’t prompt the kind of news coverage that a Hegseth ouster would. Hegseth makes a better fall guy for Trump’s misguided war.
If there’s any consolation for Hegseth, though, it’s that his firing would let him unlock that liquor cabinet he claimed to have shut when he became the secretary of defense.
A scotch on the rocks may be in your future, Pete! At least you have that.
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